Penticton

A South Okanagan woman testified Tuesday that she thought she would end up dead and no one would ever find her following an alleged brutal sexual assault in an old pump house.

Photo: Deborah Pfeiffer

Ronald Teneycke arrives at Penticton Court House

The woman was the first witness in the Ronald Teneycke trial in a Penticton court room. Teneycke, a high risk sex offender, is facing five charges including sexual assault with a weapon and sexual assault causing bodily harm tied to the incident that took place on July 31, 2011 in the Okanagan Falls area.

The witness said that morning she left her home with friends and went to the Penticton Indian Reserve to buy cigarettes.

After returning home, she drank some beer and might have taken an antidepressant before going to Keremeos to party.

Unable to drive, the witness said she began hitchhiking on Highway 97 just past Channel Parkway, and was picked up by a man driving a big white car, like a Cadillac.

In her description of the driver, she said he was big with a long ponytail and a scar on his upper lip.

The two ended up at a gas station in Keremeos, where she went up to a friend to try get some cocaine.
After borrowing $60 from another friend to buy the drug, they went to Cawston, where she picked up a half gram of cocaine.

From Keremeos, the pair traveled to Oliver on a very bumpy dirt road, stopping at the home of a friend of Teneycke, to try to get more cocaine.

On their way back to Okanagan Falls, Teneycke turned on to Oliver Ranch Road, she testified, because he said he had to return some tools and help a buddy up that way.

He parked in a dark area between fences and went to get something from the trunk of his car.

She offered to help carry the objects, which she described as a rope, tarp and other items.

They stepped over a barb wire fence and made their way to an old pump house with a big hole in the door. As they walked on uneven ground he stopped her, put his arm around her, put something at her throat and said “have you ever been raped by a serial rapist," she claimed.

The witness, who sat through much of the testimony, hiding her face from Teneycke with her hand, broke down in tears as she recalled telling him "f.... off, you are kidding me, you are lying."

She said he then assaulted her with one of the objects.

As the assault continued he tried to have sex with her before telling her to roll over. She again said to him "don't do this, I have kids."

She was begging him to stop, finally it ended and he started crying.

They walked back to the car and returned to his mother's home in Okanagan Falls.

Initially, she didn't run because she was shocked and scared. But finally she swore at him and walked to the IGA.

She called a roommate and said she wanted to get the H.....out of there because she had just been raped. She then called 911 and traveled with an RCMP officer to the location where the alleged assault took place.

From there she was taken to Kelowna General Hospital, where she was examined for evidence of rape.

During cross examination, defence lawyer Michael Welsh blamed her inability to remember some of what took place that day because, he said, she was drunk after loading her purse up with beer.

At one stop in their travels that day, she was so intoxicated that she fell down. The mix of an antidepressant and alcohol putting her past the point where she knew what she was doing, Welsh said.

In addition, she had no money to buy drugs or alcohol and figured she would get it by coming on to someone, he suggested. He said she flirted with Teneycke, telling him at one point, "my God you have the nicest arms."

Earlier in the day, crown counsel John Swanson described an object, the witness said was used on her in her testimony, as a large homemade dildo, and that DNA from the object matched a blood sample taken from the accused.

The accused, clad in a prison jump suit with a long ponytail, showed little emotion during the testimony.